Norton anti-virus showing up on computer, in installed programs-I didn't install

[mlsweeney]

I have Windows Vista basic on my Dell computer. Several days ago my son was playing internet games. Shortly after he finished, an icon for Norton Anti-virus scan showed up on the desktop. It has installed itself as a program in install/remove programs. I have un-installed it two times over the past two days. When I rebooted this morning, it was installed again.

I run the free version of AVAST. It hasn't picked this up as malware, or spyware. I don't know why Norton is showing up. I've had this computer a year, and it came with McAfee.

Could you please tell me what is going on, if it's harmful, and if it needs to be removed, how do I do it?

Thank you in advance for your help.

m

[Lisandro]

Norton scanning could be only on demand coming with Google Pack.

Anyway, be sure both are removed:

1) Remove NAV or Norton 360 through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. Boot.
2) Use Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista or Norton Removal Tool for Windows 98/Me. Boot.
3) Install avast! (or repair the installation) and boot.

The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2008/2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products and Norton 360 from your computer.


This article provides the steps to remove SecurityCenter from your computer.
http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/faq3.asp?docid=71525
Also for direct download: http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/VSCleanupTool.exe
and http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe (2007)

Sometimes, McAfee won't be completely removed if, before, you do not uninstall Avast, including the use of its "Uninstall Application" if necessary (www.avast.com/eng/faq-install-uninstall-avast.html).

[DavidR]

If you haven't had Norton installed previously on this system ?
Then I highly doubt it has sneakily installed itself its very big.

If you ever did have Norton, try the tool suggested by Tech.

Don't double click on the suspect icon, right click and select Properties and you are looking for the full path to the file name/program and what it is called. It could well be a fake AV, see below for some more tools to check this out.

####
If you haven't already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it, preferably in safe mode and report the findings (it should product a log file).

• 1. SUPERantispyware On-Demand only in free version.
• 2. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, On-Demand only in free version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later.